This invention is an improvement in the liquid heating and dispensing appliance disclosed and claimed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,360(Augustine et al). The present invention and the appliance disclosed in the above-cited patent are intended to provide a simple means for rapidly heating a small quantity of water to a temperature at or near the boiling point. Such appliances are useful in heating water to be used in making tea, instant coffee, soup or other food and beverage products requiring hot water for their preparation. In most cases, a relatively small quantity of water is required. By employing a relatively high wattage heating element of on the order of 1,000 to 1,400 watts, it is possible to heat 8 or 12 oz. of water to the boiling temperature in a period of one and a half minutes.
Since an appliance of this type for heating small quantities of water rapidly performs essentially the same function as a person can perform with a tea kettle on a stove top, it is important that the appliance have significantly better efficiency than the stove top approach and also that it be relatively low in cost. The high wattage element permitting the water to be heated in a minute or two provides a significant time advantage over the time required to heat a similar quantity of water in a tea kettle on a stove top. This improvement in heating time is largely attributable to the association of the high wattage element in intimate heat exchange relationship with the water containing reservoir of the appliance. It is also important that means be provided to determine when the water has reached the appropriate temperature, the boiling point, and also to provide a simple means for dispensing the heated water once it has reached the boiling temperature. In the prior art appliance disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,360, separate controls were provided to operate the control thermostat and the valve for dispensing the heated water from the reservoir to a vessel located beneath the reservoir. The present invention involves a considerable simplification in the number of parts included in the appliance and also in the controls used to energize and to dispense the heated water.